What can we learn from exceptional responders in cancer trials?

Following on from yesterday’s post on the potential for small basket trials in ER+ breast cancer with the ESR1 mutation, I wanted to highlight another area where these type of highly focused and rational studies appear to be not only useful but also potentially produce stunning responses.

Some of you will recall the fascinating and widely told story of a single bladder cancer patient at Memorial Sloan Kettering who was resistant to multiple lines of therapies. The team sequenced the genome and found a rare TSC1 mutation. Importantly, this is known from pediatric astrocytoma studies, to be sensitive to an mTOR inhibitor, everolimus (Afinitor). The refractory patient was given the drug and responded well. The rest is history, as they say.

Can we learn more from these type of appraches, i.e. genomic sequencing of patients who have relapsed after initial therapy?

Can we also learn more from the few exceptional responders in clinical trials – what was unique about their response that elicited such a stunning effect?

The short answer is a resounding yes – to learn more about some stunning new genomic approaches to research and the lessons we can learn for future drug development, sign in or sign up below.

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